Total Productive Maintenance
With our tough economic times, it would be wise for anybody who owns expensive equipment such as a label making machines, to protect their investment and keep their machines operating. The ability to keep ones equipment running at optimal settings is very important for a few reasons, as working equipment makes and saves money at the same time.
The term “total productive maintenance” was coined in 1949 by the Nippondenso Company. The ideology behind total productive maintenance is, that all employees will help keep equipment up and running, not just the mechanics. Although every company might not own expensive label making equipment, the same principles still apply. No matter how large your company, or how much equipment you own, keeping your equipment clean and operating at full function will help and benefit everybody.
There are six major areas associated with loss from equipment, these areas are:
1) Breakdowns
2) Setups & Adjustments
3) Minor Stoppages
4) Speed
5) Rejects
6) Scrap
Between 70-80% of equipment breakdowns are caused by either poor maintenance or contamination. Both of these problems can be easily fixed by having trained and certified operating staff running the machines, because as long as the machines are properly operated and cleaned/inspected on a regular basis, lots of time and money can be saved by simple pre-emptive measures. Total productive maintenance requires a company to constantly check and re-check their equipment, constantly train staff and operators on correct usage in order to stay on top. Spending small amounts of time and money into maintenance can easily pay for itself over and over again in profits through working machinery.
Broken or faulty machinery can take a long time to fix, as well as a lot of money. In the end, it costs less and produces more to have all of your machinery working and cleaned. Don’t wait til that gear is stripped before you have maintenance fix the machine. Be diligent with routine checks, and keep operators up to date with new training as often as possible.
